Thursday, August 04, 2005

Summer Of '96

I really feel very flattered to know that they are some "great" souls in this world who spare time and read my non-sensical blogs also - I owe my allegiance to "Shaila" and "Padmaja"... Yesterday I was talking to Padmaja after a long time .. it brought back lots of memories of Vizag and our college life, those careful days of 12th holidays, when we had thrashed all those wicked exam papers and jumped over the barriers of the common entrance exam EAMCET - and enjoyed our last 'few' happy days before having to shed crocodile tears on our results - and pack off our bags to enter a new world of 'responsible' engineering-to-be-graduates... Every alternate day was spent in planning new adventures, new places to visit, new hotels to ransack and new movies to watch .... Not that we did all of them ... Our most favourite haunts were the Ramakrishna beach - the best being the visit to this part of the beach below a cliff called "Silver Coast" (I don't know why it is called so, you won't get even get shells there, let alone 'AG')... We had the best times of our lives - playing around, shouting loudly, getting all wet - the best part of this area of the beach is that it is completely deserted and the people who visit it are mostly families(read decent), and not the usual tapori public who are there at the beach only for 'sight adichofying'.... I still remember how we forced Padmaja to wear a Skirt and how shy she was feeling about it - I am talking of the 90's which were still pretty conservative, unlike the modern days where a metre cloth covering the body itself is felt 'overdressed' ... Padmaja was my scooty-partner... we were soo possessive about our partners, i would not agree her to sit on Rajni or Smitha's vehicles ... As i drove all the wide, winding up-hills of Siripuram, she would sing to me or we would talk of happenings and have a nice time .. with cool breeze whipping our hair over our faces ... and a carefree mind - a mind which has no worries of 'what extra innovative work have i done today?', 'when would i get my salary hike?', 'should i swtich jobs?', 'how soon can i get home to cook dinner?', 'should i make cabbage or cauliflower today?' .... the list just keep going on .... The shores of Ramakrishna beach are just the same today, there are still a bunch of young teenagers there playing around, unaware of the dangers of life that await them, unaware of the 'treats' that life has in store for them ... I long to be there back .. and one day i will also be there, but will I feel the way i did in that Summer of '96 ?